


Appropriate Fixation (the mirror of heaven remix)

by byzantienne



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Historical, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-28
Updated: 2010-03-28
Packaged: 2017-10-08 21:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byzantienne/pseuds/byzantienne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And if there is a center of the world, it is not held by your tools and methods, but by the tools and methods of that which engenders your destruction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Appropriate Fixation (the mirror of heaven remix)

**Author's Note:**

> Being a remix of [LadyEmme](http://ladyemme.livejournal.com/)'s fic, [Contemplating the Night Sky](http://ladyemme.livejournal.com/1733.html), written for [Hetalia Remix 2010.](http://community.livejournal.com/hetaliaremix/)
> 
> Timestamp: 1894 CE, and some time earlier.

**Naha, Okinawa. The Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa Province. Meiji 26. (18 September, 1894 CE.)**

Facing west, the _nishi_ district of Naha's port opens up onto the East China Sea. The sun rises behind Japan, warm on the back of his neck where the collar of his uniform does not quite reach his hairline, and casts long slanting rays out onto the water, shading some of the ships and some of the warehouses to delicate gold. The bending shore of Okinawa Island does not entirely obscure the view of the Sea, and only disguises the mainland shore behind it with distance that even a Nation requires maps to visualize. Japan possesses both such maps and sufficient warships to mark all the longitude lines between here and the Yalu River as incontrovertibly his own.

Japan finds satisfaction in this bare fact. It recognizes the superiority and ingenuity of his people. The achievement of their self-governance is assured and their confidence confirmed by this success.

China is on the opposite side of this war. There is additional satisfaction in _China's_ defeat at Yalu, beyond that produced by Japan's victory alone. China's ships had outnumbered his, in armament and in caliber. Japan contemplates how such illustriousness becomes meaningless when diluted with the ill-fitting advice of foreigners and the confusion of institutional corruption. Much of China's Beiyang Fleet failed to tactically respond to the Imperial Navy's advance. China might look to the integrity of his command structure.

The fortress on top of which Japan is standing, _Yarazamori gusuku_, half of the primary defense of Naha port, has been fully modernized. This is a matter of necessity. Okinawa Island has been part of Ryukyu _han_ for twenty years, and a primary trading post for ten hundred, whether Japan's borders are closed or open. Japan considers again China's defeat at Yalu, and confirms the efficacy of modernization, as well as its requisite nature.

The humiliation that China suffered and continues to suffer at the hands of those Western powers which now advise him will not be Japan's. The state of the defense of Okinawa is evidence of this, as much as the war across the sea is. It is appropriate that Okinawa has been made sufficient in this fashion, as it has been both a point of contention and a place of collusion between his interests and China's.

It has, and within a human's memory, _been_ China's.

It will not be China's again, Japan determines. When his eyes had been closed to the rest of the world, the Ryukyu Islands had served adequately as a neutral place from which he might observe China. Naha port was filled with Chinese goods, Chinese junks. He recalls China himself, at the _oyamise_ in the central square, visiting along with his officials.

In his current state, China would be unrecognizable to those who still staff the royal government trading center.

Japan regrets this; it is unfortunate.

He closes his eyes when the fully-risen sun produces a glare on the water which is too severe.

\---

**The Kumemura. Naha, Okinawa. The Ryukyu Kingdoms. (1435 CE.)**

China sits in the central garden of the Kumemura at moonrise, framed in narcissus blossoms and bamboo, and rubs an inkstick over the smooth surface of an inkstone. The brush resting at his left hand is white jade and inlaid gold, one shade lighter than the brocade robe which envelops him. The students of the Kumemura, all of Ryukyu's scholar-bureaucrats, some as young as five, sit _seiza_ at his feet and watch the motion of the inkstick on the stone, absorbing it, method and mechanic.

Japan also kneels, some distance apart. He observes China rather than the ink. China moves with effortless grace.

Japan returns to his own work. His calculations and figures are meticulous, in even lines on the rice paper. The lamplight is more than sufficient.

"It is fitting to consider the future, little brother," China says. Japan is startled, enough that his fingers tighten on the brush and mar a radical.

He raises his head. The moon frames China as if China has been painted with his own calligraphy brush. It is an imposition of the light. "I do consider the future, elder brother," he says, "and the advancement of my position in it."

"An appropriate fixation for your eyes," China tells him. "It is also fitting to consider your position relative to those who shelter and improve you."

Japan marks a further _hanzi_ on his paper, 中, _center_. This one is made evenly, without wavering. He neglects to add another.

The circle of Ryukyuan students shifts to allow China to pass through. He comes to stand in front of Japan, observes the long lines of characters with which he is engaged. He turns his brush in his hand, tips Japan's chin upward with the cool sharpness of jade, so that he can no longer look at what he is composing, but instead observes China.

"You learn so quickly, little brother," he says. "Finish that word. Look upward more."

The sky is blotted out by the sweep of China's robes and the glitter of their brocade.

\---

**Naha, Okinawa. The Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa Province. Meiji 26. 18 September, 1894 CE.**

The central gardens of the Kumemura are empty, this early in the day. Japan is pleased by the serenity of their quietude. The bureaucrats have mostly been removed to the mainland, where they might serve the emperor and their Nation to the best of their ability.

The gardens continue to blossom with narcissus.

They are flowers for achievement and for well-wishing. Japan inhales their scent with his eyes shut, and considers the progress of the Imperial Army through Manchuria.

If there is a center of the world, he thinks, it is no longer held by China's tools, or by China's methods.

There are others.

.  
\---

**Author's Note:**

> * * *
> 
> Ryukyu, Okinawa Province.  
> The First Sino-Japanese War, with particular reference toThe Battle of the Yalu River.  
> The Kumemura.  
> [中國](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/中國)


End file.
